Asian Champions Trophy 2023 3rd Place Playoff: South Korea 3-5 Japan Highlights

Hello and welcome to Khel Now’s live blog for the South Korea vs Japan 3rd place playoff match in Hockey Asian Champions Trophy 2023. Please wait for the blog to load.

Defending champions South Korea is set to take on reigning Asian Games Japan in the bronze medal playoff match at the Asian Champions Trophy 2023. Both the Asian sides finished third and fourth respectively at the end of group stages and after defeats in the semi-finals, they are set to meet and decide the bronze medallist. South Korea lost 2-6 against Malaysia in semi-final 1 and in the following match Japan lost to hosts India 0-5.

Both sides started the proceedings in the tournament by playing against each other. In the tournament opener, South Korea beat Japan 2-1 in a closely fought contest. Japan scored the opening goal in the sixth minute of the match, but South Korea made a strong comeback to score the next two goals.

Japan after nearly getting into the playoffs, had a good start to the match against India holding their defence strong. Their defence stood apart and many expected the match to go down till the end, but India managed to find gaps and breached Japan’s defence with ease dominating the next three quarters. In the first semi-final, South Korea scored the opening goal, but Malaysia equalized with the next few minutes and extended the lead to 4-2.

There was no looking back for Malaysia from here on as they scored the following two goals and won the match comfortably by a 6-2 margin. South Korea and Japan need to hold defence in order to win the bronze medal and we shall expect a high scoring match. Jang Jonghyun and Yang Jihun are the only players to feature in the top 20 list for goalscorers from this match.

On the contrary, Japan have eight different goalscorers and they have overall scored only eight goals in the six matches played so far in the tournament.

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